A few facts about Gorgonzola cheese and appellation of origin

Gorgonzola is a blue-veined Italian cheese containing 48% fat made from fresh cow's milk and takes its name from its place of origin, the small Italian municipality of Gorgonzola, located in the province of Milan in the Lombardy region.

Nobody knows for sure when this blue cheese was first produced but as legend has it, like many other inventions, it came about by accident. Back in the days, herdsmen crossing through the Italian Alps would stop at the small village of Gorgonzola to milk their tired cows. The milk of the tired cattle was then used to make stracchino (meaning 'tired') cheese. One evening a young man, a worker in a cheese factory, not having finished making stracchino cheese, ran off on a date with a girl. The next morning, to cover up his carelessness, he mixed the fresh milk with the cheese curds from the day before and left it in the cheese cave. Some time later, blue veins appeared in the cheese. After tasting it, the young man realized that he had come up with a new kind of cheese.

Originally, gorgonzola was called "stracchino of Gorgonzola". To make it, the evening milk was fermented, then the first layer of curd, which hardened overnight, was drained and in the morning a layer of still-warm curd from the morning milking was placed on top of it. As the cheese matured in the cheese cave, the surrounding mould got onto it and, penetrating deep into the cheese, formed blue veins.

In the early twentieth century, this cheese became very popular. However, the modern technology of Gorgonzola production is slightly different from the one produced in caves. Today, cheesemakers insert mould spores into young cheese with metal rods for air access during maturation.

In 1996, the European Commission classified the cheese as DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta - Protected Designation of Origin). Currently, only about 30 Italian cheese factories are authorized to produce the original Gorgonzola.

In the Republic of Belarus, the appellation of origin of GORGONZOLA is also protected. No one has the right to use it except those who have been granted the exclusive right to do so.